treated as Barbarians; a religion that was fcarce followed by any but the populace; whofe fuffrage feemed fitter to difcredit an opinion, than propagate it. A religion, which, by its attack upon the gods, paffed for atheism, and was on that account looked upon as the caufe of public calamities; a religion profcribed from its firft rife by the laws of the empire; and punished by the most dreadful inflictions; a religion, whofe plain unadorned worship made no court to the fenfes; a religion, which required men to fuffer prefent evils, in expectation of an invifible reward.What contrariety can be more ftriking than that of idolatry and Judaism to Chriftianity? Let us eftimate by this the difficulty of making the change.'--The author confiders,

2. The amazing extent of this undertaking. It has no limits, but thofe of the world. It is propofed to alter not only fome indifferent cuftoms, but every thing, that every nation held most holy, moft hallowed, moft venerable, and indif` penfible.

3. The time chofen for executing this defign: the most po lite, the moft enlightened, the most elegant; the age wherein Rome advanced to the fummit of power, by the dint of her arms, became alfo the mistress of the world by her literature and laws. The whole empire was filled with philofophers, orators, poets, and historians...Yet never was there fo great a depravation of manners. To men drowned in voluptuousnefs, accustomed to deny nothing to their appetites, in whom the habit of licentioufnefs has formed a fecond nature, rules of conduct are to be prefcribed, which oppofe the inclinations, thwart the natural affections, and wound the heart.

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4. The authors. Fifhermen, without learning, without abilities, weak and pufillanimous; twelve men whofe condition, appearance, and manners, infpire nothing but contempt. These are the men, who undertake to inftruct the Greeks, the fathers of arts and fciences; the Romans, the mafters of the world. Thefe are they who purpose to convict the fages of folly, the philofophers of ignorance, and the whole world of error.

The profeffor proceeds to the means, the obftacles, the fuccefs, of this great enterprize. The apostles, he obferves, were unacquainted with the arts of Cicero and Demofthenes; they spoke like the loweft of the people. Their language was neither calculated to captivate the imagination, nor affect the heart. They appear to have used no artifice, no intrigues, no fecret management to draw in followers. They preach Jesus crucified at Jerufalem before his murderers; and far from being afhamed of the humiliations of their mafter, they take a pride in them, and boast of knowing nothing but Jefus Chrift, and him crucified. They had neither riches, power, nor force.

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force. They are fheep, which have nothing to oppose to the fury of the wolves that devour them, but an unalterable meeknefs their only armour is fuffering, bleeding, dying.

The obftacles which their adverfaries threw in their way were numerous. The Pagans and Jews blackened Christianity by calumnies, and fet up miracles in oppofition to it. The heretics rent it by their errors, the philofophers attacked it. with their writings, the princes and the people perfecuted it with violence, and ftrive to feduce thofe, whom they could not vanquish.

Yet in fpite of all opposition Christianity prevails.

Twelve Galileans introduce the worship of their crucified mafter, not only among a great number of Jews, who demanded his execution, but even an innumerable multitude of Gentiles. Their found went into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world. There is no country, where they have not a numerous progeny of believers; no region where they do not erect trophies to Jefus Chrift: they bring under the gofpel yoke nations, to whom even the Romans were not able to give law; and the church is, at its rife, already of larger extent than the dominion of the Cæfars...In the midft of these concuffions, which shake the univerfe, the church of Christ alone immoveable as its author, knows no viciffitude. She is encreased by the loffes of Rome. She fees thofe conquerors, who have held the capital of the world in chains, fubmit to her yoke, and glory in being her children...

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, were great philofophers. They were held in efteem, as fages. Their abilities, their learning, their genius were admired They joined to the ftrength of reafoning the charms of eloquence, and all the graces of compofition. Yet thefe fages were never able to bring their countrymen to live according to the rules of the morality, which they taught; they could never check the vices, that reigned among them, nor had they ever any confiderable number of difciples.

The alteration of man, the change of the univerfe, even if all human means promoted it, could not fail of looking like a prodigy. What a prodigy then, or rather what a number of prodigies are [is] implied in the fuccefs, which the apostles have had, being fuch perfons as they were, and having met with the most powerful obftacles to their enterprize? To give fight to a man born blind is a miracle, and fhall it not be deemed a miracle to change the religion, the manners, the laws, the cuftoms, the practices, the prejudices, the opinions, the fentiments, the tafte, the inclinations, the propenfities, in a word, the mind and the heart, in an infinite number of men ?'-

The author answers the objections, which have been urged against the Christian religion, and concludes in this manner.

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We have from the Jews and Pagans a two-fold confeffion. They acknowledge explicitly the reality of the miracles of Jefus and his difciples, and they fupply us with the facts, from which bave [has] been compiled the history of the establishment of Christianity; facts which neceffarily fuppofe the reality of those miracles. Facts confeffed by thofe, who have the greatest interest in gainsaying them, are incontestable. Therefore the miracles of Jefus and his difciples have the highest degree of certainty. It has been proved, that God is the author of these miracles; therefore God is the author and inflitutor of the Chriftian religion. Now, a religion that has for itself the teftimony and approbation of the Deity, and is the very work of the Deity, is certainly true. Therefore the Chriftian religion is true.'

To this difcourfe the author fubjoins remarks in favour of contefted proofs: fuch as, Nero's infcription, mentioned by Gruter, p. 238, Tiberian's Letter to Trajan, Antoninus's Edict to the States of Afia, the Edi&t of Decius, mentioned in the Acta S. Mercurii, and the teftimony, or the filence of Jofephus concerning Jefus Chrift.

Admitting, fays Mr. Bullet, that the contefted paragraph in Jofephus concerning Jesus Christ is an interpolation, and that Jofephus has not spoken of him at all, let us fee what inferences may be drawn from his filence.

This hiftorian, who was born three or four years after the death of Chrift, could not but know, that one Jefus, called a cheat, an impoftor, a magician, a prophet, had appeared in' Judea... In his time the Chriftians were fo confiderable a body, that they drew the attention of the emperors. These mafters of the world enacted laws against them; they decreed capital punishment to them, and injoined the magiftrates to fearch for and apprehend them. The fidelity therefore of history required, that mention fhould be made of them. This was the opinion of Tacitus and Suetonius, men to whom the fect of the Chriftians were a much lefs interefting object, than to a Jew, as Jofephus was. These two hiftorians were perfuaded, that the rife and fettlement of Christianity was of importance enough to be ranked among the great transactions which they tranimitted to pofterity, Jofephus is very exact in mentioning all the impoftors or heads of parties, which had ftarted up among the Jews, from the reign of Auguftus to the deftruction of Jerufalem. But the feet of Chriftians had a much better claim, than any of the rest, to be taken notice of in his history; our author therefore argues thus:

This hiftorian either believed, that the whole account of Jefus's difciples, concerning their mafter, was falfe, or he believed that it was true. In the first case he would not have been

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filent.

filent. Every thing led him to fpeak on fuch an occafion; the interest of truth; zeal for his religion, the foundations of which the Chriftians fapped by their impoftures; love of his countrymen, whom the difciples of Jefus accused of having put to death, by a malignant and cruel jealoufy, the Meffiah, the fon of God. By detecting the impofture of the apoftles, Jofephus would have covered the enemies of his people with confufion, rendered himself agreeable to his countrymen, conciliated the favour of the emperors, who would fain have stifled Chriftianity in its birth. He would have engaged the applaufes of all thofe, who held this religion in abhorrence, and undeceived those very Chriflians, whom the firt difciples of Jefus had deluded. Now, is it poffible to believe, that a man well acquainted with a cheat, which it is fo much his intereft to publifh, fhould be so fcrupuloufly and profoundly filent upon it, especially when fo natural an occafion offered itfeif to mention it? If falfe miracles fhould be vented among the people, tending to unfettle their faith, with what zeal would our writers labour to detect the impofture, and to prevent their feduction? Would they not think, and with good reafon, that filence on fach an occafion was a criminal preyarication? It feems evident therefore, that, if Jofephus believed, that what the apostles faid of their master was falfe, he would have taken care to make it known. If he did not believe it to be falfe, he believed it to be true. And it was nothing, but the fear of difpleafing his own nation, the Romans, and the emperor, that stopped his mouth; in which cafe his filence is as good as his teftimony, and equally ferves to authenticate the truth of the facts, upon which Chriftianity is founded.'

This is the fubftance, or rather a fpecimen, of our author's reafoning in defence of Chriftianity. The argument itself is old; but the profeffor's manner of treating it is new and ingenious. He has indeed managed it with uncommon spirit, force, and eloquence, and placed every circumftance, which he takes into confideration, in the cleareft and the strongest light.

The tranflator has fubjoined fome ufeful and judicious notes, on Palegon's Exλers, Toledoth Jefehu (the production of a malignant and lying Jew, about five or fix centuries ago), the teftimony of Tacitus, Jofephus, &c. and fome ftri&tures on Mr. Gibbon's account of Chriftianity, and its firft teachers.

The references are placed at the conclufion. But the proofs at large. tranflated from the original authors, will compofe a fecond volume.

The

The Hiftory of Gunnery, with a new Method of deriving the Theory of Projectiles in vacuo, from the Properties of the Square and Rhombus. By James Glenie, A. M. 8vo. 4. 6d. Cadell.

the preface to this little work we are informed, that

In the author's defign in this performance, is not only to lay

before the reader an hiftorical account of the different difcoveries which have been made relative to the refiftance of the air, by the most eminent writers who have treated of this fubje&t; but likewife, to give the theory of projectiles in vacuo, derived in a new manner from very fimple princip es, with a method of reducing projections on inclined planes, to those which are made on the horizon.' Mr. Glenie feems to be no contemptible mathematician, and on more mature confideration he would not, we apprehend, denominate a few fcattered thoughts, the Hijtory of Gunnery. The hurry in which the performance feems to have been run up, may havẹ betrayed him into many unguarded expreflions, which we appre hend he may with to have altered in a fecond edition; and when he is better acquainted with the practical parts of this fubject, he may lee many things belonging to it in a light different from that in which he has hitherto viewed them. A gentleman of his fcientific knowledge, and feeming difpofition for expe rimenting, is doubtless a great acquifition to the regiment of artillery in which fech characters are perhaps too un

common.

The part of this book which the author calls the Hiftory of Gunnery, confifts chiefly of a loofe account of fome of the attempts that have been made to determine the refiftance of the medium to bodies projected in it; a fubject not yet brought to an exact determination, notwithstanding the endeavours of our immortal Newton. Mr. Glenie feems to have bestowed fome time and labour on this fubject, though the result is not "bere published, but referved for confideration and improvement. For this purpose we would recommend for his infpection, what the famous profeffor Euler has written on this fubject in his comments on the Gunnery of our countryman Mr. Robins. Mr. Glenie, in this piece, takes occafion, we think with juftice, to defend Mr. Robins against one of feveral unjuft reflections thrown on his memory by Mr. Muller,

Galileo, among many other great discoveries, first, of any that we know of, explained the true law of the descent of gravity, and the nature of the refiftance of the medium; and was very naturally led to make an obfervation, that fince the yelocities generated by gravity are proportional to the times, but that the refiftance of the medium is in the duplicate or